Several months before a row house fire that killed two people, a D.C. police officer reported the dangerous conditions at the building to the city’s fire department and the agency responsible for regulating construction in the District, a spokesman from the mayor’s office confirmed.
Five months before the fatal fire, an officer saw unsafe conditions at 708 Kennedy St. NW while responding to a noise complaint on March 21, NBC Washington reported.
Police sent five separate emails to D.C. Fire and EMS and the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs over a two-month period before a DCRA inspector went to the home.
DCRA is responsible for regulating construction and business activity in D.C.
The inspector visited three times but could not get inside because nobody was home, Mayor Muriel Bowser’s spokesman confirmed.
After the third visit, the inspector left a card and closed the case.
City Administrator Rashad M. Young told The Washington Post that fire department inspectors failed to act on the officer’s complaint and emails about the row house. He said it is clear that D.C. agencies “should have done more to protect our residents.”
Bowser has ordered D.C. police, the fire department and DCRA to conduct internal reviews to identify the gaps, NBC Washington reported.
Four city workers are now on leave. The U.S. attorney’s office is investigating.
The fire broke out on Sunday, Aug. 18 just after 9:30 a.m. in the basement of the two-story house. About eight people had been living there, D.C. Fire Chief Gregory Day told reporters on Aug. 21.
The tenants were Ethiopian immigrants working to send money to their families. They told regulatory officials that the building was partitioned into a dozen tiny rooms, some no larger than a queen-sized mattress, The Associated Press reported.
The structure had narrow halls, broken smoke detectors and barred exits, authorities said, complicating firefighters’ attempts to clear the building.
A man from Ethiopia was killed and a 9-year-old boy later died.
